Mr and Mrs Hay - Alona hotel 19/7/14

Hi all!

Well after 2 and a half years planning and stressing, I am married! I'm now Lorna Hay and I couldnt be happier Our wedding was at the Alona Hotel, Strathclyde Park on probably the worst day of weather the whole summer so far lol! Anyway I'll start with the morning of the wedding.....

I stayed over at my mum and dads and managed to get a decent kip. I woke up at 6.30am and lay getting my thoughts together for 15 minutes before getting up and showered. I wasnt nervous at all, i was super calm, a feeling that lasted through the whole day. People said that I was the calmest bride they had ever seen! My three bridesmaids arrived at 7.15am and I gave them their presents (personalised pearl charm bracelets) and I had written a card with a personal message to them in each about how me met and what their friendship meant to me. So the waterworks began haha! Hair and make up rrived at 7.30 and the beautifying process began! It was such a calm morning, we were all sitting about chatting and laughing while my dad made us rolls on sausage and scrambled egg and we had a few glasses of prosseco. It really was like a well-oiled machine and no one was stressing, it was the perfect way to start the day.

So around 10.30 the front door goes and i thought it might be the flowers. It was....but not the bridal flowers! My lovely other half had sent me the most amazing bouquet of roses as a surprise! I wanted to text him thanks but everyone told me i wasnt allowed lol, so my bridesmaid Sami text him for me. He text her back, 'tell her to check the zip bit of her vanity case', which i did and found a letter addressed to me! He had snuck in it and the letter was so lovely, telling me how much he loved me and that he was so excited to see me in my dress. I read it aloud and the full house, hairdresser and make up artist included, were in tears haha!!

Anyway as i said, we were really organised and ahead of schedule. I wasnt getting picked up til 1.15pm but as it was 11am and everyones face and hair was done, they decided to get me into my dress. Ny mum and MOH had a few goes but didnt really have a clue and i was a bit panicky. But then my amazing make up artist Irene Tremble stepped in and laced me single-handedly into my dress! She was amazing and I was so greatful she was there to sort me out! At some point the flowers arrived and they were stunning, I loved them! Flowers by Becky did them and Becky was an absolute star, so friendly and laid back yet organised. She did my bouquets and centrepieces and they were a hit!

I should mention that by this point the heavens had opened and it was pouring down. I was a bit gutted but i knew it was going to happen as id been checking the forecast all week. In the event I found i was ok about it all as really, scottish weather is the one thing you cant plan for. I wasnt freaking out or stressing, i just wanted to to get there to the Alona and see Wull! My mum and bridesmaids got into their car and me and my dad took a wee minute in the house our two selves. He'd bought a bottle of really expensive champage for us to share a
glass before we left, bless him, but i was so eager to get going that i said, can we just go??

I went out to a sizeable crowd lol, half the street had turned out and my mums workmates, depite the rotten weather, which was nice. With a bit of effort i managed to get into my car and we were off! As i said, i wasnt nervous at all, i was calm as anything. My dad and the driver had a right old natter the full drive there lol.

So we arrived at the Alona and getting out of the car was a bit of a drama. It was a Beauford classic car and rather a tight fit getting in and out of. The fact that it was raining didnt help so I got a bit panicky trying to get out but i got there in the end! We got into the lobby and my bridesmaids were there. The photographer got a fab shot of my MOH re-applying my lipgloss while the wedding co-odinator fixed the underskirts on my dress lol! We walked through to be met by our amazing humanist Sandy Geddes then we went across to the banquetting suite. At this point i was still super calm, no butterflies at all. I think it was because i knew 100% that this was what supposed to be, that me and wull were meant for each other

The wedding co-ordinator lead us in and my girls began to walk down the aisle. At this point I became aware that our chosen ceremony music wasnt playing. I thought, maybe theyre waiting til i start to walk down before they play it? But nope! I was told to go so i walked down the aisle to a random song but i didnt care. It felt amazing walking down the aisle on my dads arm and i was smiling and waving to everyone. I went a bit too fast and i heard my wedding co-ord hiss, 'slow down!' behind me haha! Wull obviously was waiting on our particular song playing so he didnt turn round as he wasnt expecting me and my dad actually had to tap him on the shoulder to let him know i was there!

Our ceremony was fantastic, literally every guest commented on how personal it was. We wrote our own vows, which we'd kept secret from each other and had a hand fasting. Apparently all our guests were in floods of tears but i couldnt stop smiling and neither could wull. We held hands so tight through the whole ceremony even though our hands were really sweaty! We were pronounced man and wife and i thought the smile would split my face! I was on cloud 9

So then we had time to mingle with our guests and it was so good to just gab to folk and see everyone looking so fancy lol. It was absolutely pouring at this point so our photographer grabbed us for the group shots which we had to do indoors, but i didnt care. At one point though it did clear up a little so me and wull were grabbed and we managed to get outside for some shots of just us two which was lovely. When we were outside, three jakeys wandered past and shouted, 'congratulations!!', totally blitzed out of their trees haha! We got across to Strathclyde Park and got some (hopefully) lovely shots which i was so glad about.

At 5pm we got called in for dinner and being cheered into a room filled with our nearest and dearest was amazing! Two of the three speeches were fantastic. My dad went first and to explain, my dad is a burly, alpha-male steelworker. But during his speech as he spoke of holding 'that wee pink bundle' in his arms, he completely broke down! It was the sweetest thing and i think most of the room - male and female - were sobbing along with him, bless. Wull's speech was lovely too, but the best man, oh jings. He hadnt written anything down or prepared anything. So he told a story about me getting drunk one night when me, him and wull were 16, then proposed a toast to us. That was it. No winding wull up, no embarrassing stories about him, nothing. I was actually livid but said nothing. The next day on facebook he posted this beautiful post saying how perfect we were for each
other and how much he loved us and would always be there for us. Why didt he just say that on the actual day?! Urgh lol.

The meal was lovely and the staff were perfect, the Alona were amazing to deal with during the lead up and on the whole day itself, nothing was too much for them. Then onto the bit i was looking forward to the most - the party!!

Our DJs were Soundtec Discos and they were AMAZING! The dancefloor was bouncing all night and they kept in constant communcation with me during the night. For example, someone requested Stand by Me for 'absent friends' and they checked with me first if it was ok to play it in case it upset anyone. They did a ceilidh set which went down an absolute storm and they also provided a prop box, which i had no idea about and I hadnt paid extra for. At one point i was sat chatting to someone and i glanced at the dancefloor and all of a sudden everyone was wearing hats, wigs and massive sunglasses, and playing inflatable guitars and saxophones! As the evening went on they gave us all glowsticks and folk had them round their necks, ankles, heads, everything! It was fantastic.

The party went on til 1am and it was so much fun. So many guests have said to us that it was the most personal and most fun wedding theyd even been to, which was really our aim when we planned it. Four days on, its just starting to sink in that it actually happened! Because of the Commonwealth Games, my hubby couldnt get time off straight away so we dont go on honeymoon til 4th august, but its kinda nice as it means we can prolong the wedding period lol. We're going to Florida and i cannot wait!

Well done if you made it through all that, I didnt mean to write so much! I'll try and attach some photos

Congratulations I loved reading that, and even teared myself at the 'pink wee bundle!'. Your dress was beautiful and ur mums too! I've two and half years between being engaged and getting married so im cuffed to see it does come round eventually lol. x